A Fine Scottish Steel & Silver Scroll Butt Belt Flintlock Pistol by John Murdoch of Doune. 12” overall, 7 ½” three stage barrel, engraved with Celtic scrolls & acanthus, reeded at the breech, swamped muzzle. Steel stock of traditional form engraved overall with Celtic scrolls, acanthus bands & silver inlays along the spine of the butt. The scroll engraved lock signed ‘IO. Murdoch’. Swan neck cock, facetted steel, top jaw & pan with horizontal sear, three silver bands underneath. Engraved overall with scrolling Celtic patterns, silver ball trigger & pricker engraved with rose heads. Ramrod with pierced baluster, silver escutcheons on both sides. Engraved belt hook.
Circa 1770
A fine pistol in very good condition, silver escutcheons dented.
John Murdoch of Doune, worked 1750-98, he was the last of the successful Scottish gunmakers
See Charles E Whitelaw, “Scottish Arms Makers” page 43,
Historians believe that first shot of the American Revolutionary War was fired by British Major John Pitcairn with a Scottish Murdoch flintlock pistol.
The Statistical Account of Scotland, 1798, vol. xx. pp. 86-8: “The trade is now carried on by John Murdoch, also famous for his ingenuity in the craft, and who has likewise furnished pistols to the first nobility of Europe. These pistols were sold from 4 to 24 guineas a pair. There is now very little demand for Doune pistols, owing, partly, to the low price of the pistols made in England, but the chief cause of the decline is the disuse of the dirk and pistol as a part of the Caledonian dress; and when Mr. Murdoch gives over business, the trade, in all probability, will become extinct.”